I find myself avoiding discussions about dog related things more often than not because I just find the misinformation and beliefs about training depressing. For example, on reddit I am being downvoted to oblivion because I dared say something against a guy who pinned down his wolf/chow mix and bit him on the throat to show his dominance.

Usually I'll just throw out some better trainers names, links to websites disputing whatever the person is saying, or use real-life examples (we tried XYZ with our dog and it worked much better than what we tried before), and then bow out.

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"My favorite color is green, green like newly cut grass. When it comes to green with envy, though, you can stick it up your @ss!" ~ Grammy

If I see an opening for education (IRL) than I will discuss dog things, but most of the time I stay away from it. Like the guy at work who talks about the multiple litters he's bred from his dogs that he got from Petland, recommends that other people buy dogs from Petland, and is obviously proud of himself, yeah, no opening for educating there. But some people at work actively ask me questions because they know I know a lot and I'm always open to discussion.

All the time. Unless I know they are deeply involved in dog geekery like I am, honestly, I don't want to scare them off. Not only that, but I'm kind of sick of giving away free training advice in general. I feel that people don't take it seriously unless they are actually paying for it and that I'm just wasting my breath. I avoid telling people that I'm a dog trainer for that very reason.

There are times that it is obvious that walking away and shrugging it off as best you can is really the best option for your sanity.

I do try to educate if I see the opportunity. I remember having a very nice talk about what is a good dog food with a lady that had just gotten a puppy at our local pet food store She was interested and I was happy to help.

Yep, mainly in RL. Sometimes people will specifically ask something and I might say something but more times than not if it's advice it's ignored. So typically I let them talk, aww over their tiny cell phone picture and let them leave.

It's not worth the frustration to me and at the end of the day I know most of them love their dogs and I'm happy with that....as long as I don't have to discuss it with them.

Like, if someone says to me about how they feed their dog purina, I'm not going to sit there and tell them there are better options. If they say they think their dog has food allergies or they want to try a better food, I'll discuss it.

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"My favorite color is green, green like newly cut grass. When it comes to green with envy, though, you can stick it up your @ss!" ~ Grammy

If people ask for advice or are thinking about getting a dog, I'll give them as much info as possible. But if dogs just come up in conversation and dumb crap is being said, I keep my mouth shut usually.